Julie Seltzer...

I was walking down the streets of Baka in late 2007 when I literally stopped in my tracks as the revelation struck: I was going to learn sofrut. As much as I had engaged in Torah study, leyned on shabbes, and argued esoterica from the Talmud, I’d never given a second thought to who wrote Torah scrolls – or any other scrolls for that matter. My journey into the unknown began by finding online sites that explained letter formation and how to hold a calligraphy pen, and later I was fortunate enough to learn with truly incredible teachers, including Shoshana Gugenheim and Jen Taylor Friedman, with whom I currently learn in NYC.

Scribing is an art that fuses so much of who I am and what I love: Torah, Hebrew, art, ritual, meditation. There is also something so beautiful about the anonymity of it all (even as I write this bio, I know that ultimately my hand will merge with others’ and become an indistinguishable part of the whole).

I previously worked in theatre, Jewish education, and most recently as Baker at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. My more ephemeral, edible art—specially-shaped challot based on images from the weekly parsha — is another way that I engage with Torah and community life. I feel blessed and inspired to be joining the team of women on the Women’s Torah Project.